Tuesday, January 27, 2009

I am beginning a new series in our morning service on the book of Acts. Over the last few months, I have felt a need to teach and preach on a series related to speaking the gospel to our culture. It is nothing new to any of us to realize our great need to discover meaning in this life. So many have been touched by the economic downturn of our day, have witnessed the futility of our government leaders to provide answers, and have experienced the downsizing of jobs and the plunge of the housing market. What is going on and who has the answers? I believe that the Christian faith can supply those answers. I believe that the hope of our world lies in the message of the gospel. No other religion can provide that hope like Christianity. I was thinking about this hope when I came across a quote from Chuck Colson (How Now Shall We Live?, 136):

“For the secularist, death is like stepping off a cliff into a black abyss of nothingness. The Muslim faces a fearsome judgment, and for many Eastern religions, the prospect is equally grim: After death, the law of karma decrees that people must pay the penalty for what they have done in this life, being reincarnated according to their past deeds. But for the Christian, assured of eternity with the Lord, ‘To die is gain’ (Philippians 1:21).”